Monday, September 28, 2015

Wikipedia article of the day for September 29, 2015

The Wikipedia article of the day for September 29, 2015 is Choiseul pigeon.
The Choiseul pigeon (Microgoura meeki) is an extinct species that was endemic to the island of Choiseul in the Solomon Islands. Its closest living relative is believed to be the thick-billed ground pigeon, and some authors have suggested that the Choiseul pigeon may be a link between that species and the crowned pigeons. The adult pigeon was largely blue-grey, with an orange belly and a distinctive slate-blue crest. The bird's head sported a blue frontal shield surrounded by black feathers and a bicoloured beak. It was described as having a beautiful rising and falling whistling call. It is believed to have been a terrestrial species that laid a single egg in an unlined depression in the ground. It roosted in pairs or small groups of three or four in small shrubs and was reportedly very tame, allowing hunters to pick it up off its roost. The indigenous peoples reported that the species was driven to extinction by feral cats, as the pigeon had never previously confronted a carnivorous mammal on Choiseul. The last unconfirmed report of a Choiseul pigeon was in the early 1940s.